lU>{^ 


Wi)t  Relation  of  papttsits! 

- :  tO  tf )t  - _ 

Jjapstacfe  Centennial 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MISSIONARY  UNION 
BOSTON,  MASSACHUSETTS 


Wt jc  delation  of  ^aptistsi 

-  —  to  tfjc . — . . ~~""= 

Hapgta tfe  Centennial 


®N  a  grassy  lawn,  now  within  the 
limits  of  Williamstown,  Mass.,  is  a 
spot  which  has  long  been  of  interest 
to  lovers  of  missions,  for  it  was  here  that 
a  company  of  students  from  Williams  Col¬ 
lege  met  one  summer  afternoon,  just  one 
hundred  years  ago,  under  the  shelter  of  a 
haystack,  and  talked  and  prayed  about 
sending  the  gospel  to  the  heathen.  The 
place  is  marked  by  a  monument  surmounted 
by  a  globe,  and  is  inscribed  on  one  side  with 
these  words,  above  and  below  a  haystack 
carved  out  of  the  marble: 


The  Field  is  the  World 
The  Birthplace  of 
American  Foreign  Missions 
1806 

Samuel  J.  Mills 
James  Richards 
Francis  L.  Robbins 
Harvey  Loomis 
Byran  Green 

The  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  this 
occasion  is  being  fittingly  commemorated 
bv  The  American  Board  of  Commissioners 


3 


The  Relation  of  Baptists 


for  Foreign  Missions,  the  society  which 
was  the  direct  outcome  of  this  early  in¬ 
terest;  but  the  event  itself  was  fraught 
with  such  deep  significance  to  the  Church 
as  a  whole  that  this  centennial  occasion  is 
of  vital  interest  to  every  denomination. 

The  Haystack  Prayer  Meeting 

The  circumstances  of  the  little  meeting 
were  these.  As  the  result  of  a  deep  relig¬ 
ious  awakening  which  had  made  itself  felt 
in  Williamstown  in  common  with  many 
other  localities,  it  became  the  custom  of 
a  number  of  students  in  Williams  College 
to  meet  every  Wednesday  afternoon  for 
prayer  in  the  valley  south  of  the  college. 
Sometimes  when  they  had  more  leisure  they 
would  go  to  a  grove  in  the  opposite  direc¬ 
tion.  It  was  in  this  latter  direction  that 
five  young  men  wended  their  way  upon  that 
historic  afternoon,  but  a  thunderstorm  led 
them  to  leave  the  grove  and  take  refuge 
under  a  haystack  in  a  field  near  by.  The 
subject  of  conversation  turned  upon  the 
moral  darkness  of  Asia,  and  Samuel  Mills, 
the  leading  spirit  in  the  group,  proposed 
to  send  the  gospel  to  that  dark,  heathen 
land,  uttering  the  words  which  have  since 
become  a  missionary  classic,  “We  can  do  it 
if  we  will.”  The  names  of  the  five  young 
men  present  are  those  inscribed  upon  the 
monument.  Each  one  offered  a  prayer, 
four  of  the  five  making  foreign  missions  the 


4 


to  the  Haystack  Centennial 


burden  of  their  petitions.  The  meetings 
continued  throughout  that  year  and  the 
next,  and  the  subject  of  missions  to  the 
heathen  was  always  kept  in  the  foreground. 
Thus,  as  has  been  said,  “the  first  personal 
consecrations  to  the  work  of  effecting 
missions  among  foreign  heathen  nations  on 
the  part  of  American  youth”  were  made 
at  Williamstown  on  that  afternoon  one 
hundred  years  ago. 

The  Brethren 

It  was  about  two  years  later,  on  Sep¬ 
tember  7,  1808,  when  two  of  the  original 
five,  Samuel  J.  Mills  and  James  Richards, 
together  with  Ezra  Fiske,  John  Seward 
and  Luther  Rice,  signed  the  constitution  of 
The  Brethren.  This  was  a  secret  organiza¬ 
tion,  the  purpose  of  which  was  “to  effect 
in  the  persons  of  its  members  a  mission  cr 
missions  to  the  heathen.”  Each  member 
pledged  himself  not  only  “to  keep  invio¬ 
lably  secret  the  existence  of  this  society,”  ' 
but  also  to  “keep  absolutely  free  from  any 
engagement  which  shall  be  deemed  incom¬ 
patible  with  the  object  of  this  society”  and 
to  “hold  himself  in  readiness  to  go  on  a 
mission  when  and  where  duty  may  call.” 
Two  years  later,  when  the  members  entered 
the  seminary  at  Andover,  the  organization 
was  transferred  there,  and  the  names  of 
Adoniram  Judson,  Jr.,  Samuel  Newell  and 
Samuel  Nott,  Jr.,  were  added  to  the  roll. 


The.  Relation  of  Baptists 


From  the  time  that  Judson  joined  The 
Brethren  he  appears  to  have  become  the 
leading  spirit  among  them,  but  one  im¬ 
pulse  moved  them  all  and  they  were  ex¬ 
ceedingly  active  in  their  efforts  to  kindle 
missionary  enthusiasm  among  the  churches 
and  ministers  wherever  they  went.  The 
secrecy  of  their  organization  grew  out  of 
a  general  lack  of  sympathy  on  the  part  of 
many  of  the  churches  of  that  day  with  what 
appeared  to  be  such  Utopian  plans.  The 
society  flourished,  however,  for  many  years, 
and  proved  to  be  one  of  the  influential  or¬ 
ganizations  of  history,  its  membership 
from  Mills  to  Neesima  having  included 
many  noted  missionaries. 

Not  many  years  after  the  organization 
of  The  Brethren  a  similar  society  came  into 
existence  in  our  Baptist  seminary  at  Ham¬ 
ilton,  N.  Y.,  and  many  of  our  early  mis¬ 
sionaries  were  members  of  it.*  Surely  the 
spirit  that  actuated  the  students  of  those 
early  days  is  the  same  that  has  led  in  our 
day  to  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement. 
The  unity  and  cooperation  which  charac¬ 
terize  our  times  were  impossible  seventy- 
five  or  one  hundred  years  ago,  when  the 
difficulties  of  travel  were  so  great;  but  the 
spirit  was  none  the  less-  earnest. 


*This  institution  has  made  a  remarkable  record  for  the 
number  of  missionaries  it  has  sent  forth.  A  recent  me¬ 
morial  published  by  Colgate  University  gives  the  names 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  who  have  been  students 
in  its  various  schools  who  have  entered  foreign  mission¬ 
ary  service. 


6 


to  the  Haystack  Centennial 


Early  Missionary  Interest 

It  would  be  erroneous  to  conclude,  how¬ 
ever,  that  interest  in  the  cause  of  missions 
among  American  Christians  began  with  the 
haystack  prayer  meeting.  It  is  well  known 
that  as  early  as  May  28,  1799,  an  asso¬ 
ciation  was  formed  in  Boston  among  the 
Congregationalists  under  the  name  of  the 
.  Massachusetts  Missionary  Society,  the 
object  of  which  was  “to  diffuse  the  gospel 
among  the  people  of  the  newly  settled  and 
remote  parts  of  our  country,  among  the 
Indians,  and  through  more  distant  regions 
of  the  earth  as  circumstances  shall  invite.’' 
Other  states  organized  similar  societies. 
The  Presbyterians  for  some  years  previous 
to  1800  had  shown  a  growing  interest  in 
missions,  and  in  1805  the  General  Assembly 
began  the  publication  of  the  Missionary 
Magazine  or  Religious  Intelligencer.  In 
1806,  Rev.  Dr.  Griffin  delivered  the  an¬ 
nual  missionary  sermon  before  the  General 
Assembly  in  Philadelphia,  and  urged  the 
claims  of  the  heathen  with  an  eloquence 
which  has  seldom  been  surpassed.  Interest 
in  the  work  of  Dr.  Carey  in  India  seems  to 
have  been  quite  general  in  various  denomi¬ 
nations,  and  considerable  sums  of  money 
were  sent  him  from  time  to  time.  During 
the  years  1806  and  1807  the  receipt  of 
$6,000  from  American  churches  was  ac¬ 
knowledged  by  him. 


The  Relation  of  Baptists 


Interest  Among  Baptists 

There  is  considerable  evidence  that  a 
deep  interest  in  missions  prevailed  in  many 
of  our  Baptist  churches  from  an  early  date. 
Being  widely  scattered  and  having  no  gen¬ 
eral  organization,  the  associations  were 
LW  chlef  exponent  of  Baptist  thought. 
Ihe  minutes  of  these  meetings  were  for  a 
long  time  the  sole  periodical  literature  of 
the  denomination,  but  these  were  widely 
and  carefully  read.  From  many  of  these 
early  records  it  is  evident  that  'prayer  for 
the  world-wide  extension  of  the  gospel  was 
quite  general.  Such  references  as  these 
occur  frequently: 

The  Warren  Association  in  1787  “spent 
some  time  in  prayer  for  a  revival  of  re¬ 
ligion  in  our  churches  and  throughout  the 
world.” 

The  Stonington,  Conn.,  Association  rec¬ 
ommends  that  the  members  of  the  churches 
spend  some  definite  time  every  Lord’s  Day 
in  prayer  to  God  that  “he  will  be  graciously 
pleased  to  cause  a  general  spread  of  the 
gospel  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.” 
In  a  letter  addressed  to  other  associations 
it  exhorts,  may  we  with  one  heart  unitedly 
pray  that  God  will  make  more  abundant 
displays  of  gospel  grace  till  the  whole  earth 
shall  be  filled  with  his  glory  and  praise.” 

The  monthly  concert  of  prayer,  which 
originated  in  England  in  1784,  was  soon 
ndopted  by  churches  in  this  country  also. 


to  the  Haystack  Centennial 


and  had  much  to  do  with  quickening  the 
spiritual  life  which  was  the  necessary  ante¬ 
cedent  of  a  deep  interest  in  missions. 
Fortunately  there  were  among  the  ministry 
quite  a  number  of  stalwart  personalties 
who  were  in  close  touch  with  leading  Bap¬ 
tists  of  England.  Among  these  none  was 
more  influential  than  Rev.  William  Staugh- 
ton,  D.  D.,  pastor  of  the  Sansom  Street 
Church,  Philadelphia,  a  man  of  such 
eminent  ability  that  he  received  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Princeton  Uni¬ 
versity  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight.  He  had 
come  from  England,  where  he  had  been 
the  friend  and  associate  of  the  most  inti¬ 
mate  friends  of  missions  there.  He  was  in 
frequent  correspondence  with  several  of 
them,  and  was  perhaps  the  most  direct 
channel  by  which  their  spirit  was  diffused 
among  our  American  churches.  Many  of 
our  early  ministers  were  his  students  in 
theology,  and  they  imbibed  in  a  happy  de¬ 
gree  his  characteristic  sentiments.  When, 
in  the  course  of  events,  the  Baptists  or¬ 
ganized  a  foreign  missionary  society.  Dr. 
Staughton  was  elected  to  the  office  of  cor¬ 
responding  secretary. 


State  Missionary  Societies 

In  common  with  other  denominations 
state  missionary  societies  began  to  be 
formed,  primarily  for  the  purpose  of  send- 


9 


The  Relation  of  Baptists 


ing  preachers  to  frontier  regions  beyond 
the  limits  of  their  own  state,  and  estab¬ 
lishing  missions  to  the  Indians.  The  New 
York  Missionary  Society  was  an  interde¬ 
nominational  society,  organized  about  1796, 
which  for  years  conducted  a  successful 
mission  among  the  Indians  through  the 
work  of  a  Baptist  minister,  Rev.  Elkanah 
Holmes.  An  early  director  of  this  society 
was  Rev.  John  Williams,  a  Welshman, 
who  had  settled  in  New  York  and  was  the 
successful  pastor  of  the  Fayette  Street 
Baptist  Church.  From  time  to  time  there 
came  to  New  York  missionaries  from  Eng¬ 
land  on  their  way  to  India.  The  East 
India  Company  refused  to  carry  them  in 
their  ships,  so  they  were  obliged  to  seek 
passage  from  American  ports.  Mr.  Wil¬ 
liams  became  deeply  interested  in  them  and 
in  the  work  in  India,  and  as  early  as  1800 
addressed  a  letter  to  Dr.  Carey  himself,  in 
which  he  told  him  something  of  the  work 
of  the  New  York  Missionary  Society. 
This  opened  the  way  for  a  long  and  in¬ 
tensely  interesting  correspondence  between 
them,  and  Dr.  Carey  took  a  lively  interest 
in  the  work  of  Mr.  Holmes.  The  news  con¬ 
tained  in  these  missionary  epistles  was 
widely  circulated  and  was  a  very  real  force 
in  the  early  awakening  of  missionary  in¬ 
terest  among  our  churches.  The  English 
missionaries  continued  to  journey  to  and 
from  India  by  way  of  our  shores  and  their 


10 


to  the  Haystack  Centennial 


ardent  zeal  was  not  lost  upon  American 
churches.  In  1806  the  Baptists  withdrew 
from  the  New  York  Missionary  Society 
and  formed  the  New  York  Baptist  Mis¬ 
sionary  Society,  with  Rev.  John  Williams 
as  its  first  president.  The  treasurer  was 
a  deacon  of  his  church,  John  Cauldwell, 
who  became  the  first  treasurer  of  the 
General  Convention,  the  society  which 
later  came  to  be  known  as  The  American 
Baptist  Missionary  Union. 

The  Massachusetts  Baptist  Missionary 
Society  was  organized  in  1802,  and  seems 
to  have  been  the  first  state  society  consist¬ 
ing  of  Baptist  churches  alone.  The  object 
was  stated  to  be  “to  furnish  occasional 
preaching  and  to  promote  the  knowledge  of 
evangelistic  truth  in  the  new  settlements 
within  these  United  States,  or  further,  if 
circumstances  should  render  it  proper.’7 
The  following  year  the  publication  was 
authorized  of  the  Baptist  Missionary 
Magazine,  a  periodical  which  circulated 
widely  throughout  the  northern  states,  and 
contained,  besides  the  news  of  missionary 
work  and  revivals  in  this  country,  occa¬ 
sional  letters  from  Dr.  Carey  and  his  as¬ 
sociates  in  India.  The  editor,  Thomas 
Baldwin,  D.  D.,  was  himself  a  correspond¬ 
ent  with  Dr.  Carey  and  leading  men  in 
England,  such  as  Drs.  Fuller  and  Ryland, 
and  delighted  to  do  all  in  his  power  to  ex¬ 
tend  the  interest  in  missions  to  pagan  lands. 


11 


The  Relation  of  Baptists 


He  was  ably  seconded  in  his  influence  by 
Dr.  Lucius  Bolles,  of  Salem,  Mass.,  who, 
in  1826,  succeeded  Dr.  Staughton  as  sec¬ 
retary  of  our  Baptist  General  Convention. 
At  that  time,  also,  the  Baptist  Missionary 
Magazine  became  the  official  organ  of  the 
foreign  missionary  society. 

We  would  not  assume  in  all  that  has  been 
said  that  the  missionary  spirit  was  general 
in  those  early  days.  It  is  not  universal 
even  now.  But  men  of  faith  and  piety 
and  enlarged  views,  in  all  denominations, 
were  becoming  interested  in  missions,  so 
that  when  the  young  men  of  Andover  actu¬ 
ally  placed  their  appeal  before  the  General 
Association  at  Bradford,  Mass.,  on  June 
28,  1810,  a  sufficient  number  of  influential 
members  were  in  sympathy  with  them  to 
ensure  the  success  of  the  project.  The 
following  day  the  first  board  of  commis¬ 
sioners  was  elected,  and  thus  the  first  for¬ 
eign  missionary  society  came  into  existence 
in  our  country.  Enough  has  been  said  to 
indicate  that  although  the  Baptists  were 
not  immediately  connected  with  this  ad¬ 
vance  step  on  the  part  of  their  Congrega¬ 
tional  brethren,  they  had  a  profound  in¬ 
terest  in  the  undertaking  and  a  real  sym¬ 
pathy  with  the  young  men  who  were  the 
occasion  of  it. 

An  Unexpected  Call 

Not  long  before  his  departure  from 
America,  during  a  conversation  with  Dr. 


12 


to  the  Haystack  Centennial 


Bolles,  of  Salem,  Mr.  Judson  suggested  to 
him  the  formation  of  a  society  among  the 
Baptists  of  America  for  the  support  of 
foreign  missions,  in  imitation  of  their  Eng¬ 
lish  brethren.  Little  did  he  then  “expect 
to  be  personally  concerned  in  such  an  at¬ 
tempt,”  least  of  all  to  become  the  first  mis¬ 
sionary  of  the  proposed  society.  The  change 
of  views,  which,  however,  came  to  him  and 
his  wife,  together  with  Luther  Rice  who 
had  sailed  about  the  same  time,  both  of 
whom  were  in  the  early  student  movement, 
are  well  known.  When  the  knowledge  of 
their  change  of  views  reached  this  coun¬ 
try  it  produced  a  remarkable  impression. 
Although,  as  we  have  stated,  there  was  a 
strong  missionary  sentiment  in  many  of 
our  churches  and  in  the  minds  of  some  of 
our  leading  ministers,  there  was  no  gen¬ 
eral  organization  to  unite  our  widely  scat¬ 
tered  forces.  With  no  real  knowledge  of 
our  strength  we  were  scarcely  prepared  to 
attempt  any  important  enterprise.  “The 
change  in  sentiment  in  Messrs.  Judson  and 
Rice  was  just  the  event  which  was  needed 
to  rouse  the  Baptists  to  action  and  con¬ 
centrate  them  upon  one  object,  truly  Chris¬ 
tian  in  its  essence  and  yet  denominational 
in  form.  It  was  universally  acknowledged 
that  in  this  matter  the  providence  of  God 
had  left  us  no  option.  Not  to  enter  at  once 
upon  the  work  of  missions  would  be  to 
belie  our  profession  as  Christians  and  ex- 


13 


The  Relation  of  Baptists 


pose  us  to  the  scorn  of  the  whole  religious 
world.’7* 

Societies  in  aid  of  foreign  missions  were 
immediately  formed  in  many  leading  cities, 
and  liberal  contributions  were  made  to 
their  treasuries.  A  society  formed  in 
Boston,  named  the  Society  for  Propagating 
the  Gospel  in  India  and  other  Foreign 
Parts,  at  once  assumed  the  support  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Judson.  But  they  still  clung  to 
the  English  Baptists,  thinking  it  might  be 
wiser  to  continue  to  cooperate  with  them  in 
the  work  at  Serampore  than  to  engage  in 
an  independent  enterprise.  But  providential 
circumstances  and  the  far-sightedness  of 
our  English  brethren,  who  perceived  that 
such  a  union  would  not  be  for  the  best 
interests  of  the  cause  in  America,  prevented 
any  such  joint  action.  After  careful  delib¬ 
eration,  therefore,  a  meeting  was  called 
in  Philadelphia,  and  on  May  18,  1814,  was 
organized  the  General  Missionary  Conven¬ 
tion  of  the  Baptist  Denomination  in  the 
United  States  of  America  for  Foreign  Mis¬ 
sions.  In  1826  the  headquarters  were  re¬ 
moved  to  Boston,  and  in  1846  the  name  was 
changed  to  The  American  Baptist  Mis¬ 
sionary  Union. 

Under  the  blessing  of  God  this  organiza¬ 
tion  has  come  to  hold  a  leading  place  among 
similar  societies  throughout  the  world. 

♦Wayland’s  Life  of  Judson.  which  has  been  consulted 
freely  in  the  preparation  of  this  leaflet. 

14 


to  the  Haystack  Centennial 


According  to  recent  statistics  it  holds  the 
first  place  in  the  number  of  communicants 
in  its  churches  in  pagan  lands,  while  it 
ranks  seventh  in  the  amount  of  annual  in¬ 
come.  There  are  today  (1906)  more  than 
550  missionaries  engaged  in  its  service, 
aided  by  4,345  native  workers.  There  are 
1,238  organized  churches,  having  on  their 
rolls  130,902  members.  Never  in  its 
history  have  the  opportunities  for  enlarge¬ 
ment  been  so  numerous  as  today,  nor  the 
resources  of  the  Church  so  abundant.  All 
the  circumstances  seem  to  indicate  that  the 
next  few  years  should  witness  a  great  ad¬ 
vance  in  all  lines  of  activity,  both  in  rela¬ 
tion  to  the  interest  at  home  and  the  actual 
work  that  is  being  done  abroad.  “We  can 
do  it  if  we  will”  is  no  less  true  today  than 
one  hundred  years  ago.  God  grant  us  the 
WILL  TO  DO. 


549.  1  ED.  10  M-9-06. 


SAMPLE  COPIES  FREE; 

15 


55  CENTS  PER  HUNDRED 


